Calls on Irish leader Enda Kenny to back 1916 Museum at historic site

The property on Moore Street, near the GPO, which protesters are fighting to preserve as a historic site
Photo by: Broadsheet.ie

Campaigners are confident that a museum to commemorate the 1916 Rising will be opened on an historical site at the centre of controversial rebuilding plans.

The Save No 16 Moore Street committee have called on Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny and Minister for Arts and Culture Jimmy Deenihan to restore the Dublin site to its former glory.

The building at the heart of the city centre was the venue for the meeting where the 1916 leaders decided to end their historic rebellion.

As plans continue for centenary commemoration ceremonies in 2016, the committee hope a museum will be opened on the site.

They renewed their appeal after the government announced a $30million revamp of the National Gallery which will be concluded in time for the 1916 celebrations.

Their plans would see numbers 14-17 Moore Street restored to their period condition and opened as a museum.

The Irish Times reports that the second floor of the museum would hold archived material relating to the Rising.

The first floor and ground floor would host a public exhibition space including restoration of battlefield tunnels.

The planned exhibition would include exhibits such as the Proclamation of Independence and the letter of surrender according to the report.

Group secretary John Conway outlined to the paper how the committee has campaigned for more than 10 years to save No 16 Moore Street after it was set to be demolished in 1999 to create a millennium centre.

Conway said: “A couple of the lads found out what was afoot and we started the campaign back then. It gained speed slowly, but by 2002 we were really stuck in.

“We got what was planned stopped and done away with and we got this new idea to develop.

“It is a really sensible balance between conservation with regeneration. We were deliriously happy and we remain deliriously happy. We have saved a lot of what’s left of the 1916 Rising.”

The campaigners include Nuala O’Rahilly-Price, the granddaughter of Michael Joseph O’Rahilly who was the only rebellion leader to die in battle.

She told the Irish Times that she is excited to see museum plans come to fruition.

O’Rahilly-Price said: “It is absolutely wonderful to have an actual memorial here in the centre of Dublin and to see what was done and to see the mayhem that was going around.
“It will bring recognition and hopefully a sense of history to any of the youngsters who come here.”